The Resistance: The Rise of Warren Peace
by frozenangel1988
Summary: The world as Warren Peace had known it in his 23 years had disappeared, only to be replaced by a burning shell of what used to be. Villains were in control. Few that still possessed their powers after the first attack had been driven underground and were slowly attempting to mount a resistance. Warren Peace was among one those few. Rated M for violence & language. (On hiatus)
1. Chapter 1

AN: So, I had a strange dream last night about humanoid bunnies taking over the world and it got me thinking about dystopian worlds and figured a post-Sky High story would be sweet. I don't really have much planned out so this chapter was written on a whim and is kind of short, but let me know what you think.

-Brittanie

The Resistance

Chapter 1

Everything had gone to shit five years after Warren Peace had graduated from Sky High. The world as he had know it no longer existed. The new world was just a burning shell of the old one.

More than half the people he had know in his 23 years were either dead, captured, or broken.

The great Stronghold family was gone. Steve and Josie Stronghold were killed and Will Stronghold had gone insane at the sight of his mother's body. Will now had to be kept in an underground room that neutralized his powers, much like Sky High's detention room.

Layla was missing. Taken by them, Warren supposed.

Magenta was stuck as a guinea pig.

Zack constantly flickered, as if his internal bulb wasn't screwed in properly.

Out of their group, only Warren and Ethan survived the pulse unaffected. Ethan was always with Commander Jensen, trying to figure out a way to counteract the pulse's affects. Warren had not seen him in nearly two months.

As he laid on his hard cot, Warren thought back to the day that the pulse had changed their lives.

It was a sunny day, much like most of the days in Maxville. It was 9:00 in the morning and Warren was clocking out from his overnight shift at the firehouse. The night had held a small fire at a local grocery store, faulty wiring. His face and hands were covers with drywall and dust from breaking down a wall. He had placed his timecard back in his slot and stripped before entering the firehouse shower. He was nearly finished his shower and was just letting the hot water wash over his body when he heard a giant bang, followed by a volume of screams that Warren had never expected possible.

He learned days later that the pulse was engineered and released by a coalition of villains. It didn't affect anyone that was touching water or had a water based power, so Ethan and Warren had been safe. It neutralized some, while freezing others, or driving some mad.

The streets were flooded with chaos. Everyone, super and civilian alike, were screaming, running, crying. The looting began soon after. Martial law was declared at sundown. Gunshots became the norm. Three straight hours of sleep became a luxury after that day.

No one knew how the first group formed, but groups of supers that still possessed their powers went underground, both literally and figuratively. Warren himself was hiding in a bus station in downtown Maxville when he was attacked by a lesser villain and was forced to use his powers. Just as he set the villain on fire, a gunshot ripped through the boy's body and he dropped, leaving Warren to see a group of four men in army fatigues standing in the entrance, each brandishing a machine gun. It was then that Warren was taken into custody. Once he was in front of Commander Jensen, he was informed that he would be useful. A fire based power in a world full of water based villains was extremely important and rare.

Since that night, Warren had been trained in the art of combat with a rigor that made gym class at Sky High look like a preschool game.

No one knew who the head villain was, but they did know that all the prisons were empty. His father was somewhere out there. Warren now had an excuse to kill the man that had ruined his life.

Tomorrow, Warren would go on his first mission. He felt ready. He swallowed the tiny amount of fear that was itching his consciousness and rolled over, quickly falling into a light sleep.


	2. Chapter 2

AN: Hey, here's chapter two. Read and review, please! Suggestions are welcome!

-Brittanie

Chapter 2

It seemed as if some magical giant invisible hand had put the world in slow motion. People were falling in slow motion. Warren could swear that he saw the ripple in the air as he unleashed a fireball on a masked villain that stood across the courtyard.

When Warren's bunkmate Thomas shook him awake four hours ago, you could not pry the smile off of Warren's face with a crowbar.

Only thirty minutes later, after a quick tasteless meal from the mess hall, Thomas and Warren were sitting next to each other in a covered vehicle, both still sporting wet hair from a quick, cold shower.

Two hours later the driver of the vehicle finally rolled to a stop in a courtyard that had once been flanked by a courthouse, a police station, and the top news station. The intel had come in early that morning. A few villains were planning to raid the news station for electrical equipment and the police station for weapons. This meant that the few mobile soldiers of the Resistance had to get there first.

The battle had begun twenty minutes following their arrival and in those short ten minutes since then, the Resistance had already lost four while the villains were holding strong. Both Warren and Thomas were taking shelter behind a half blown monument that accompanied the now empty wishing pool in the middle of the courtyard. The ringing in his ears was beginning to lessen only to be replaced by the screams of McClain, whose right leg was severed. The knife blade he held in between his teeth was keeping Warren's attention focused away from the carnage. Thomas froze up as two masked villains inched past the duo towards the news station. When the two villains were twenty feet from Warren, he sprung into action, leaving Thomas behind.

The second villain did not have any time to think as his partner was ignited in a bluish blaze. Warren ignored the raw screams as his pressed his knife to the partner's throat. The shorter man tried to move but Warren put a stop to that by inching the blade closer into the man's flesh, drawing a thin dark red line.

"Stop." Warren's voice was rough. He had barely used since he woke up. "Don't move. You're coming with us, you little shit."

"I can't. They'll kill me." The man's voice was small, nasally.

"I'd kill you, you little water demon, but unlike your friends, I believe you have a purpose."

"What do you mean?" The man was scared but his voice held slight curiousity.

"My C.O. will find a use for you, even if that is beating out every ounce of useless information in that little brain."

"But…"

"Shut up." Warren brought his elbow to the back of the man's head, sending him flying towards the ground. He returned his knife to its sheath strapped underneath his right pant leg and grabbed the unconscious villain by the legs, dragging him over to where Thomas still hid. His partner looked at Warren as if he had suddenly sprouted water jets from him fingertips.

"What are doing, Peace?" The telepath's eyes were wide open, fixated on the unconscious man.

"We can use him." Warren grunted back.

"Use him how?"

"I don't fucking know. Commander Jensen can figure something out."

"But the mission was to stop them from getting into the news and police stations! You're deviating from the mission!"

"Fuck the mission! It failed! We didn't have enough damn men!"

"It's not your place to question the mission, Peace!"

"Oh shut the fuck up, Knolles. I'll take the heat for it."

"You better."

TR-TROWP-TR-TROWP-TR-TROWP

Commander Jensen's booming voice could rival that of Coach Boomer when he yelled and he was yelling now. The leader of the Resistance was a tall man with the shoulders that would cause even the most battle hardened soldier to quiver. His cold gray hair matched his even colder gray eyes. Before the Pulse, Stan Jensen had the ability to control iron. Now, he fronted a meager assault against the faceless villains that were running rampant above. At that moment, his booming voice was aimed at Warren, Thomas and the only other remaining fighter to return from the failed mission, Hector Ruiz, a former flyer. The man Warren had captured was taken into custody immediately upon entering the underground base, probably never to be seen again.

"And you thought getting intel was more important than stopping them from acquiring even more weapons and technology! It's not your job to plan a mission, Peace! It's your job to follow your orders, boy! Do I make myself clear!"

"No, sir. If we had continued to follow your mission, sir, the three of us would be dead along with the others that had died because you didn't give us enough people and weapons!"

"Watch your mouth, soldier or that will be your last mission! You are confined to base until further notice. Am I understood!" Jensen's face held no emotion.

"Yes, sir." Warren choked out.

"Dismissed."

As he trudged back to his bunk, Warren turned when he heard a familiar voice from his past calling out his name in between heavy breaths.

"Hey, Popsicle." Warren greeted his school friend once he had fell in step with him. Ethan's normal pre-Pulse attire of danger orange had been replaced by a faded brown sweater and dirty torn blue jeans.

"You know, you're not going to help yourself by arguing with the Commander."

"What can I say? I've always had a problem with authority, especially authority that is clearly in the wrong."

"He's just calling them as he sees them, Warren. Mounting this resistance hasn't been easy. We've lost many good soldiers and resources."

"And we're just going to keep losing them if he keeps up with these stupid, under equipped missions! If I had followed through and gone to those stations, I would probably be dead, along with Knolles and Ruiz. They need me. I'm a fire elemental in a world of water assholes."

"We need you to follow orders so that others will follow orders. Whether you like it or not, you're going to be a symbol of hope."

"Fine, whatever. But, fuck, I'm not going to jump blindly to my death." They had reached Warren's quarters.

"Just think about it, okay?"

"Okay, Popsicle. I'm going to sleep now. You go do whatever it is that you do."

Warren fell asleep before Thomas slipped in, ensorcelled in a dream mixed with happy memories from his time at Sky High.


End file.
